Tag Archives: chow

This week I had a blast visiting Tallahassee, FL to teach a live food class and host a dinner. The theme of the evening was Viva Italia which allowed me to connect with my Italian roots in a vegan raw food way. The menu was eggplant Parmesan, bell peppers stuffed with pecan basil pesto, zucchini and squash noodles with a hemp alfredo sauce, a fresh garden salad with sorrel, kale, baby lettuce and a fig tarragon vinaigrette… dessert was a avocado chocolate mousse that was off the charts. Thank you to everyone who helped and all those who attended. I can’t wait to do it again. Enjoy this clip from the festive event.

Down in Florida the local gardens are producing goodies in all shades of the rainbow. Recently I visited the local beaches farmers market and picked up some fresh produce. With my purchases spread out before me I saw a vision of soup, spinach soup and the rest is history. Enjoy this simple Summer Spinach Soup recipe.

Aloe vera is a plant almost everyone is familiar with and that many have growing in and around their home. If looked at as only an ornamental or at most a topical treatment you do yourself and aloe a great disservice. I lifted this information from http://www.herbwisdom.com&#8230;

So here’s goo that most peoples interaction with is to squirt it from a bottle after it has been processed and colored green or blue and spread it all over their newly acquired sunburn. It’s cheap, abundant and easily grown and harvested yet the masses prefer their aloe off the shelf, processed, colored and in a bottle. Time to take full advantage of this natural healer. If you have a plant, harvest the leaves. If you don’t, get one or find a friend who has one and harvest their leaves. Read the quote above again and click on the link and read further if you like. We’re talking cancer, HIV and diabetes… and that’s just an overview. Aloe could potentially clear you of all your past parking tickets and return your overdue books to the library.

The video shares my personal method of cutting and eating aloe. Enjoy… and Keep It Live!

Green Funions are this years black but they’re also cheap and habit forming so they could be this years crack. About twice a month I turn my2 room beach shack into a green funion lab. The procedure for making them is relatively painless if you don’t mind crying your eyes out and keep your fingers clear of the V slicer blade. The crying can be minimized by opening some windows and running the fan but you’re on your own with the slicing skills.

Prepped for Slicing

What are green funions you ask? They’re an addictive dehydrated snack… basically breaded onions. The breading is a combo of ground nuts/seeds, nutritional yeast, mesquite, spirulina and salt. Green funions get there signature green color from spirulina. You could dust them with tumeric and have yellow funions I suppose… the skies the limit.

Once the onions have been sliced I salt them and mix them thoroughly. This softens them up and mellows them out. I let them sweat while I make the breading.

Get your slice on

Next the breading gets added little by little, mixing it in and coating the onions. Often I’ll end up with left over breading that gets bagged up for the next batch.

Using tongs or my hands, I put the breaded onions directly on dehydrator screens. If you use your hands you must resist the temptation to suck your fingers until you are completely finished. Hold all phone calls and be careful not to wipe your hands on your clothes or the drapes… crack making… er… I mean funion making can get messy if you’re not careful.

Never miss an opportunity to help manifest someones dream, especially if it involves delicious vegan live food in the oldest city in the United States. This morning my friend Valerie casually mentioned she’d never been to The Present Moment Cafe in St. Augustine. Bummer I thought, continuing with the onion dehydrating project I had started. It took a moment for me to realize the opportunity at hand, the carpe diem, grab the reins by the bull kinda gusto that should be part of a life lived in the Present Moment. She had to work at 2pm at Shakti Life Kitchen in Atlantic Beach (North Florida’s other premiere vegan live food option)… it was totally doable… in the car by 11, we were at the Present Moment by 12 noon… our bellies were full and we were back on the road by 1pm.

With all that said, what tasty treats did we partake in at The Present Moment Cafe? We started out with an amazing Thai style soup with mushrooms, sesame seeds, onions and a hint of lemon grass… I could be totally wrong though on the ingredient list. That’s was my take on it and I neglected to ask for the break down. One things for sure, it wasn’t clam chowder and it was really good.

Yummy Thai Soup

Next up was a massive Cesar salad and 2 stuffed portabellos with a creamy spinach filling, very rich and Frenchy style.

We ain’t done yet… a sampler platter with guacamole, salsa and a refried beans creation (no beans or refrying of course) To accompany the platter was a massive sunlight burger all drippy with cashew provolone… wait, there’s more… a mound of creamy white truffle pesto pasta. This was some serious eating and proof to this fact is that we walked with a to go container… unheard of when sit down to eat. To my defense I showed some restraint so I would have the slightest bit of room left for dessert…

Ceasar Salad and Stuffed Shroom

Warm Pecan Apple Cobbler with a scoop of cashew vanilla ice cream… no to go’s on dessert.

On a scale of “1” to “damn that’s so good I wet my organic cotton briefs”… post meal I would be running to the bathroom to rinse my drawers in the sink… that is if I wore any. All joking aside, The Present Moment Cafe is a boot shooting chart topper with amazing food and very reasonable prices. The pictures don’t lie… portions and plating are superb, staff is wonderful and the atmosphere is so cozy that you’d consider moving in.

White Truffle Pesto Pasta, Chip and Dip sampler, Sunshine Burger

On the down side there’s a bunch of road work being done in front of the restaurant. Noise wasn’t an issue but the only access has been converted to one-way which sends you looking for a western route to India. Once you arrive in the Promise Land all your worries melt away like cacao butter basking in the sun.

If you’re ever in North Florida or even the South East you owe it to yourself to visit the Present Moment Cafe in St. Augustine, Florida. Check out there details here: